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HOWTO recruit and retain women in tech workplaces
Why care about hiring women? * stuff about diversity being good * how having women in your workplace will make it a better/more productive place HOWTO find women to interview for a position Advertise where women look "But women never even respond to our ads!" The first question you should be asking is how many women saw your ad. Advertise where tech women look! There are ample mailing lists and forums that women subscribe for specifically to see job ads. These include Linuxchix jobs lists (global and chapter), Systers jobs list, various GirlGeekDinner lists, and local Women in Tech group lists. Yes, go out of your way to make sure women see your ads! Which brings us to the next point: (todo: add links to these lists) Search out women Use your network to find women. When advertising a job, tell your employees to spread the word far and wide. Offer bounties for employee referrals that end up resulting in hires. Encourage your female employees to spread the news on their own networks, both formal and otherwise. Go to conferences, tell people about job opportunities, hand out business cards with contact details - but don't be creepy. Make your ads women friendly Since women are shut out of most networking opportunities, making your ads women-friendly is really important. Without a networking contact, your ad will be the first point of contact with a prospective female job applicant. Make sure it is effective. Contrary to popular belief, it is not enough to write a canned diversity statement encouraging unrepresented and disadvantaged groups to apply. You must address the barriers themselves that cause under-representation and disadvantage, get rid of them in your hiring process, and reflect this in your ad. Without these concrete fixes, the diversity statement comes across as a superficial attempt to prevent discrimination lawsuits and not a serious commitment to equality and meritocracy. You can eliminate barriers by doing the following: Think about what your ad says about your company's culture. Although promises of endless cold beer, pool tables, and gaming consoles may appeal to very young, predominantly male, potential employees, they don't sound particularly welcoming to someone who has young children or is planning on starting a family. There's nothing wrong with having a fun, friendly and casual atmosphere, but unless your company policies extend beyond skittles and wiimotes, you're cutting out a significant portion of your potential employee base. Another thing to think about is the technical skills you have listed in the ''"essential requirements" ''section of your ad. Do you need someone skilled in a particular, perhaps obscure programming language or technology, or will a good programmer be able to pick up the language in a few days anyway? Think skills, not technologies, because someone with skills can pick up technologies quickly anyway. By making your ad less specific, you may attract a more diverse set of candidates. As mentioned elsewhere, men are more likely to dismiss a particularly requirement as silly, or as easy to learn - and apply anyway, whereas women are more likely to be put off from actually applying upon seeing such a requirement. Create a pipeline Industry cadetships and internships are a great way to attract bright female students to your company. If they have a good experience when they're working there over summer, there's a good chance that not only they'll come back after they graduate, but that they'll also tell their friends about it. Internships and cadetships are not the only way to encourage women to join your company after they graduate. Consider sponsoring a prize for the best female student in a course directly relevant to your work, or providing scholarships to women who choose to enrol in courses that would lead to a career in your field. Women are often hesistent to enrol in the more advanced courses, not due to lack of skill, but due to lack of confidence. Encourage them to do so by offering recognition for women who excel in feeder courses, and scholarships for those who do well in the higher level. Collaborate with universities, training centres and local user groups: organising talks, seminars and conferences. Get your company's name in front of local students. Find out if your local university computing department or Engineering school has a women's group. Sponsor them. Talk at their events, and let them know what they need to do in order to take up a job with you. Hire with the intention to train new employees in skills you need It's often tempting to create a shopping list of requirments, purpose fit for the role you want to fill. Listing all the skills of the employee you're intending to replace can backfire though. Many technical skills can be picked up in a short period of time by people with the right experience and education. Narrowing down your candidate pool to those who happen to have been doing the exact same job beforehand can mean you will miss out on a very bright candidate with broad experience that may not necessarily be in your niche field. Advertising education opportunities can also encourage keen learners to apply. People who are keen to learn new skills are always an asset in a rapidly changing field. HOWTO make your workplace inviting to women Women friendly workplaces are nice places for everyone to work. Like men, women like being valued as people, respected personally and professionally and being part of a happy, healthy team. Both men and women dislike condesending, micro-managing superiors, unreasonable deadlines and stressful work environments. Most employees appreciate flexible working hours, and the ability to deal with urgent personal and family situations while at work. As such, family friendly policies are good for both genders. These include but are not limited to: *Flexible start and finish times (to work around outside commitments, such as picking up and dropping off children for school/daycare) *Personal/Carers leave for when an employees family need to be cared for *Nearby or onsite childcare facilities *Generous leave entitlements, including an ability to have reduced pay in exchange for more holidays *Ability to change working hours from part time to full time and vice versa Furthermore, women friendly tech workplaces have women in technical roles. Most women appreciate having female colleages. Being the only woman in a workplace, or even one of 2 or 3 in a large workplace can be a very isolating experience. Having an opportunity to socialise with other women, and to be mentored by more senior women is very important. Making an effort to recruit, train and promote women will result in your workplace being more desirable to new women coming in. Other initiatives that you can take to encourage women in your workplaces include: *Sponsoring internal social events for women so they can network together *Inviting female speakers *Sponsoring external social events aimed at tech women, these can include GirlGeekDinners, Linuxchix events and other technical get togethers. *Encouraging women to attend conferences, both technical (scientific confs, industry confs) and women specific confs such as the Grace Hopper Celebration of women in computing. *Encouraging women to take part in training courses, and guiding them towards getting skills necessary for promotion. *Organising workplace wide mentoring initiatives, particularly for women. By helping women socialise with other tech women, both inside and outside the company you extend their network. This means that you are more likely to get referrals for technical positions from women your employees meet at such events. As mentioned before, senior women in your company attract more women to your ranks. Having clear promotion paths and criteria helps women prepare for promotions, and having fair and transparent promotion panels avoids feelings of preferential treatment and unfairness. Women are less likely to ask or apply for a promotion than their male collegues, so supportive management is fundemental. How men and women interview differently Men and women tend to perform differently at interviews. Often men will make the skills they don't have seem insignificant to the job, playing up their own strengths. Women on the other hand, tend to play down their proficiency at skills they do have, and make a big point of skills they may lack. Furthermore, women who at an interview come across as ambitious, competive and capable can put themselves at as much of a disadvantage as those who present themselves as competent yet modest in their abilities [1] . In order to interview candidates fairly, we must first overcome our own social biases, and recognise the differences in acceptable behaviour in people of different sexes. Conducting a fair interview In order to find the best person for the job, you need to conduct a fair interview that effectively assesses your candidates. Having a fair and consistent interview process in place will help you reduce your biases and to choose the best candidate for the job. *Have a pool of interview questions, and choose ones relevant for the particular candidate before starting the interview. *Ask your questions from your colleagues, and see what answers they come up with. Ask them to weed out vague questions or ones that are hard to understand. *Avoid questions that are irrelevent to the job. Asking a question about the intricisies of the linux schedular when interviewing for a position programming databases is jarring, especially if you don't know the answer yourself! *Avoid trying to get a free consulting session out of your candidate. It's easy to see through, and doesn't put you in good light *If you have a panel style interview, try to get a gender balance on the panal. *Do not put more than about 6 people on a panel, it can be overwhelming for candidates. Remember, when interviewing a candidate, you are not the only party who is evaluating the situation. Good candidates often have multiple competing offers, and are trying to work out if they would like to work with you. Make a good impression, backed up by having a great workplace. HOWTO retain women you've hired. Having women applications for your job ads, interviewing and finally hiring them is not very useful if they leave soon after they join your organisation. Mentoring and Advancement Women often don't have access to the same informal mentoring opportunities as their male colleagues. By providing formal mentoring programs for all employees, but especially for women, you can help bridge this gap. Mentors not only help guide mentees through difficult situations, but can also provide valuable opportunities for taking up new projects and roles a mentee would otherwise not have access to. By pairing up senior employees with those more junior in rank, senior employees can also gain access to talent they might have not noticed due to the constraints of the management hirerachy. Mentoring helps build collaborations and comradery. For women in a male dominated industry, the path ahead can seem very unclear. By consulting with a mentor, women can find out what opportunities are out there, and what they need to do in order to get promotions and advance in their career. Anti-bullying culture and policies Being a very visible minority can make women a vulnerable target to bullying. Appropriate Remuneration Training and development Feedback mechanisms * Things you do that make women leave * Canaries in a coal mine * Appropriate remuneration - equal pay for equal work (same friend said she has noticed a very huge difference in pay between men and women doing the same job) * Advancement opportunities * Access to training * Mentoring and networking programs in the workplace * Providing means for employees to give feedback on their colleagues and managers, and using this feedback to make the workplace better.